


Miriam

by Treon



Series: Lullaby for Suffering [2]
Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend, Sefer Iyov | Book of Job, מדרש | Midrash, תנ"ך | Tanakh
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-22 23:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13774758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treon/pseuds/Treon
Summary: "Blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written." (Moses)"Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!" (Job)





	Miriam

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Daegaer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/gifts).



_"After Job lost everything, his three friends came to console him.  'God rewards the just and punishes the wicked,' his friends told him. 'You are being punished, therefore you must have done something wrong'._  
  
_Job refused to accept it.  He knew he was innocent of any wrongdoing and he demanded that God give him the opportunity for a fair trial._  
  
_'God reigns supreme over the universe, he's not about to respond to mere mortals,' his friends said.  'Who do you think you are that you want to speak to God?  God speaks to humans through illness and dreams.  God speaks, but you refuse to listen.'"_  
  
Moses hesitated before showing Miriam the story he had written up.  He was afraid of how she would see herself in his tale.  For she knew God's punishment, having been stricken down with disease for her sin.  Moses himself had then begged God to heal her.  
  
Moses knew God's anger as well.  When God had decreed that Moses will never cross the Jordan into the Land with his people, Moses had first begged God for mercy.  But as the day and then night wore on, his begging turned to anger.  Wasn't it all Israel's fault?  Had it not been their whining that caused him to hit the rock with his rod, thereby arousing God's displeasure?  Why should he be punished for the sins of others?  
  
But his anger at his people soon fizzled out as well.  Now he was just left with doubts.    
  
"Is this what you call justice?!" he yelled out at the silent heavens.  "Meting out the same punishment for both the sinners and the righteous?"      
  
After they fled Egypt, Moses had sent out twelve spies to scout the land.  They returned with frightening tales of the power and might of the land's inhabitants, scaring the recently-freed Israelite slaves out of their wits.  The people turned on Moses. "Why have you brought us out of the safe haven that was Egypt?"  
  
God's verdict was quick and fitting.  "You fear the land I have chosen for you?  You reject my gift?  Then you will never have to suffer it."  For forty years they had wandered in the desert, waiting for the Exodus generation to die out.    
  
And now, on the cusp of finally entering the land, Moses could not believe that he was being punished with the exact same punishment.  "I loved the land you had chosen for your people before I ever saw it. How can you give me the same punishment as those who rejected it?  Is it all one and the same to you?"  
  
But the heavens remained silent.  
  
When Miriam read his story, she wiped away a tear and smiled, and Moses knew that he had nothing to fear.  For she was his sister.  The one who had stood by his side when his mother was forced to abandon him in the Nile river.  The one who always cared.      
  


 


End file.
